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How I Made Chevron An Ethical Investment

Written by David Neubert

Friday, 23 May 2008

How I Made Chevron An Ethical Investment

Photo:rooreynolds-, Creative Commons, Flickr

I own Chevron (CVX - $100.81) and have made a pretty penny holding the shares. Owning oil companies has helped make up for my losses in financial shares this year. The other nice part about holding Chevron shares is that I can do things like appoint Amazon Watch as my proxy this year to represent me at the meeting.
Photo By David Neubert via Flickr.com

Other bloggers have criticized me for holding Chevron. They say that ethical investing and hold on oil company are inconsistent. I express my ethics through the power that being a shareholder gives me. So yes, thank you Amazon Watch for representing me with your votes. And yes, I've asked them to vote to keep the current board. But also to express my concern about way Chevron can minimize damage to the environment.

In particular, by appointing Amazon Watch to represent me I am joining a long list high-profile shareholders who are asking ChevronTexaco to make itself accountable for environmental damage in the Amazon of Ecuador.

Disclosure: I own Chevron. I will likely continue to own Chevron.

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Comments (4)

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written by Yolande Jurzykowski , May 23, 2008

I also own Chevron. Why did you vote to retain the current board? I was moved to vote against board members who recommended against greater transparency, social responsibility for communities living near drilling sites and environmental responsibility.
Do you think Chevron's board should have an independent chairman?

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written by David Neubert , May 25, 2008

I don't really have a reason to vote against the current board but I do have reasons to support several of the non-board induced proxy measures. I'd be happy to vote them out if they don't comply with any approved shareholder resolutions.

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written by Patricia Jurewicz , June 02, 2008

I wouldn't rate the board on whether they comply with "approved" shareholder resolutions. It is very difficult to gain more than 50% of the vote for any shareholder resolution, and even then it is not binding. So instead of looking at the size of the exact vote (a first time resolution only needs 3% to be filed a second year), I would watch and see how the board responds to the concerns of the shareholders given how much press there is on the issue, what other leaders in the industry are doing, etc. If there is a request for more transparency or a report, I would watch and see if it is issued within the requested time frame.

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written by David Neubert , June 12, 2008

Follow up: I sold about 10% of my Chevron position at around 99.

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